“Broadband” Internet connections currently provide users with download speeds of several Megabits per second. For example, at present Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) connections can provide end users with download speeds ranging from 2 Mb/s to 8 Mb/s and in some areas, ADSL-2 provides users with download speeds of up to 24 Mb/s.
To take advantage of such improvements in download speed, users now expect higher visual and/or audio quality content such as movies, live broadcasts or audio to be available. However, the resulting file sizes of such content are often so large that the improvements in download speed may be cancelled out. For example, a 2 hour long “High Definition” movie is typically around 9 GB in size which would take over 3 hours to download over an 8 Mbs ADSL connection.
Furthermore, such a high volume of data transfer places a burden on the service providers of ADSL connections. To prevent their networks being saturated due to high data transfer, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) of broadband internet connections have started to implement data transfer limits or “caps” on user accounts. Therefore whilst users are no longer constrained by the data transfer speed, they are now constrained by the amount of data that they may transfer.
The present invention addresses these problems.